Hey, guess what everyone? This is your last day to vote!
That's right, because the ASUA Senate, in its infinite wisdom, decided March 31 that we were going to vote this week on the student activity fee. And today, exactly one week later, is the last day to do so.
A month after the Collaboration Board decided that this fee wasn't ready for a student vote, it is now marching ahead in less than a week's time, and our student senate was gullible enough to happily agree.
Twenty-seven candidates, huge banners, two full months of campaigning and intense media coverage was only enough to get 3,600 people to vote in the Associated Students of the University of Arizona general election. That's less than 10 percent of the student population. If they expect to get more than 200 people to the polls in a week's time, they're kidding themselves.
The ASUA Senate is supposed to be there to protect the student body from things like this and represent the best interests of the entire population of students. This decision flies right in the face of everything the student senate and our student government are supposed to stand for. Student senators put their personal feelings ahead of what is good for the student body.
Whether you think the fee itself is a good idea in principle, there is no way that anybody in his or her right mind could think it's ready to be voted on, much less in such an insanely short amount of time. And if that weren't enough, the supposedly unbiased material meant to inform students about the fee and to go vote clearly urges students to vote "yes." "The possibilities are endless," the little piece of paper I got says. Unless the fee fails, that is.
Even worse, senate members are manning polling stations. I really don't care if they are senators or not ÷ they publicly endorsed the fee, and the fact they are the reason why we have this little election doesn't help either. That raises an inherent conflict of interest, period. That's like George W. manning a polling station this November, or a resolution on gun control with Charlton Heston in charge.
All year, the senate has basically been on cruise control, and the way it handled this is a perfect example.
When the senate was faced with its first real challenge and an opportunity to stand up for students' best interests, it kicked up its feet and stamped the form with a big "yes."
What has the senate as a whole done for us? The answer is unfortunately "not too much," other than dump a fee on students that is still under construction and expect them to vote on it with less warning than Pearl Harbor got.
Every week, senators show up bored to meetings, stumble through parliamentary procedure and look like they just want to leave. None of them ever reports on anything substantial, and the three standing senate committees have apparently done zilch, as their chairs always have "no report."
They could have done the student body some good by showing some judgment when the Collaboration Board brought this fee to them last week. Instead, because they were so "stoked" (to quote Sen. Nick Bajema and President J.P. Benedict) for this fee to go forward, they put logic and reason aside to vote it through. Only two senators ÷ Blake Buchanan and Kara Harris ÷ questioned the proposal and voted against it. I commend those two brave souls and will buy them a drink for a job well done next time I see them.
I can't think of any reason why the senate thought it was a good idea. Everything about it, from voting for the election in the first place to handing out propaganda in support of it, misses the point of being an ASUA senator. If senators truly cared about the fee, they would have been more thoughtful and careful about it. It certainly won't give them much credibility when they bring the proposal to the Arizona Board of Regents later this month.
Everyone complains about the senate. Every year, it's the same tune: "It doesn't do anything." Well, this year it did do something; unfortunately, the student body would be better off if it hadn't. If this is the kind of thing we can expect from our wonderful student senate, then we should all be happy it usually doesn't do a damn thing.
Jason Poreda wants everyone to know that he will continue to poke ASUA with a stick for the good of the student body. He can be poked at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.